Expergefaction

Jem Copperstern was an extraordinary nineteen year old boy. However, no one, including himself, could see any extraordinary qualities in him. He was a free-lancer columnist at a local newspaper and spent many ours with a word processor open and ready on his laptop, fingers moving swiftly across the keys in a flurry of thought. He liked the written word and when he was not writing it, he was reading it. He read novels at every spare moment; at the park, at the library, on the train, perched on the windowsill of his apartment. Sometimes he would joke to himself that he would have to become immortal for he could not leave this world having not read any and every book he could get his hands on.

Most would classify this young man as dull or mundane, but what they did not know is that beyond the surface of his appearances, his interests, and his thoughts of being nothing more than cumberground was a man that existed who's value exceeded that of the constellations. He was much more than he seemed and to a very special young woman, she would find that his heart and intellect and free spirit transcended what she defined as mortality. He was more than a bookworm, she would learn, and she would love him for all that he was.

Jem met this girl on a Saturday afternoon in a mild July at the local library. He sat at a table near a small gathering of kids and a librarian that sat before all of them with a book in hand. He had made sure to sit far away enough to not seem like a creepy pervert but still near enough that he could listen to the story. In complete honesty, he'd been waiting for this for a week and a half. Today the librarian would read to a group of children, who would never care for this story the way he had for most of his years, a fable to rival any ever written; The Iliad.

He was a practical fellow but there was a deep love for fiction that had accompanied him since he was a mere boy of eleven and he'd finally gotten to see Disney's adaptation of Hercules. From then on he feel in love with fiction; science-fiction, medieval fantasy, folklore, and of course Greek mythology. He longed to live in a world where one day he could awaken and someone would tell him that his father was none other than a god of Olympus. As that were not the case, and his father was long dead, he settled for reading the myths again and again. The epics of Homer were some of his favorites.

The librarian, a withered old thing who seemed much older than the heroes she read of, began the tale and though Jem's eyes were on an open book, he paid these words no mind. Her voice was music and the words it carried were the haunting melody of a song remembered from childhood. The story had been dulled down more than he had cared for (he assumed to benefit the children) but the tale itself was infamous and everliving in his soul. He felt scared when his heroes raged into battle and smirked to himself when they out-witted a foe.

He hadn't even taken notice of the girl who had sat two chairs away from him until he felt her staring at him. He begged himself not to take his attention away from the story but the curiosity practically burned his skin where her eyes lay. Finally it got the better of him and he swiveled his head to meet her eyes. She narrowed hers and he raised an eyebrow in response. They stared for a long minute before she seemed to laugh to herself and crept over to sit in the chair next to Jem. He felt himself tense, shoulders raised and eyes straining down at the table.

"You're here for the same thing I am, right? I'm not the only creepy adult to show up for this? Please tell me," she begged him in a whisper. After realizing that she had indeed meant what he'd thought she did, he turned to her in a bright demeanor.

"You've come to listen to Homer?" he asked in utter disbelief, and yet excitement at the same time. It wasn't very often that another person shared his interests and even if they did, they were not as detailed and they did not put as much effort into as he did.

"Yeah," she smiled. "Oh, she's reading the Iliad and I haven't missed much! It's ashame that they plan these things for kids. It'd be much less creepy if I were to go to a reading planned for adults."

Jem chuckled to himself but said no more. His ears once again found their way to story and he continued on living through it, as if he were a Greek warrior. As if he were one to appease the gods above him. Every so often he would glance to the girl who had come to sit beside him to find that she was completely engrossed as well. She stared out the window across from the pair with one corner of her bottom lip tucked beneath her teeth. Her eyes were not moving but they were not unmoved by the words spoken.

The story came to an unfortunate and premature end for the library only kept the children entertained with the story for an hour before sending them off on their way. Some were intruiged and wished to read more mythologies. Others ventured outside to play in the summer heat. Jem knew this is where it all began, the way you knew whether or not you were a true lover of knowledge. While most kids ran around out in their yards, scraping your knees, and you were inside, curled up with one of Homer's epics or perhaps any book in general, then you were a true bookworm. If you loved to experience the summer heat through the written word rather than feeling it on your skin, you were a true lover of literature.

"Shame it had to end there," mused the girl. She now had her full attention on Jem. He offered her only a sad smile and sat awhile longer. In all honesty he had thought she would get up and leave after that, be on her way and never see him again. Yet she lingered and he so wished she hadn't. He'd never been good at making conversation with anyone. Even talking to his own mother tied his tongue in knots more often than not. "Wait!" she exclaimed. Jem looked around to make sure she was talking to him. "I have both epics as audiobooks. We could listen to them together!"

"I, uh," he tried to think of a reason why he shouldn't, or at least a reason that he could put nicely. She was a complete stranger after all. They hadn't even exchanged names. But there she was, leaned forward in anticipation and green eyes flickering with genuine excitement. Her wanting to this was completely real and rational to her, he could see as much. It almost made him want to consider it. "I don't know."

She heaved a mocking sigh and rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a stiff," she paused to chuckle. "We could go back to your place, plug it into the speaker and have a fun time listening to the greatest masterpiece ever written."

"I don't think so," Jem shook his head.

Her eyes widened in plea and she pouted her bottom lip. "It's not like I'm some thief, or like I'm trying to get a good lay out of this. I just thought I'd met a cool person to hang out with."

"I believe you," he muttered. "I trust you."

It was a peculiar sensation to him. He trusted very few, and he trusted those few very little. In this world no one had been fair to him, no one had shown him reason for trusting another being. Even any higher power had made an example of this by wiping his father away from this world without letting him say his farewells. No, trusting was not something Jem did. Yet there was an honest look in her eyes and he could easily feel that honesty.

"Then what do you say? Just sit on your couch and listen to the epics?"

He wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't a sporadic person. Jem did things in a routinely manner, and if did something out of his regular humdrum stream of events, it wasn't something that was random. It would be a sensible and rational activity; nothing like taking a complete stranger back to his home. For all he knew she could be a really convincing serial killer, but then again, that gleam in her eyes told him different.

"I don't even know your name," he reasoned.

"Nepheliad," she smiled.

Jem, having an acute and immense knowledge of the fantasy world, knew exactly what that was. "As in the species of cloud nymph?"

She nodded. "The same."

"That can't possibly be your real name."

"Maybe not," she shrugged, "But it's beautiful." She sighed and started to stand. "I don't want to sound like some bitch, but I want you to know that you're missing out. Take chances, meet new people. Try something new. A journey that you begin anew will lead you to the cosmos."

He thought for a long moment while she watched him. "Did you quote something just now?" She shook her head and that was when he knew. What she said had been both thought-provoking and insightful. She was exactly the type of person he would get along with, even if he had to break out of his shell once in awhile. He gulped and firmly made his decision.

"I don't live to far from here," he offered. Nepheliad grinned.